In the Mountains
by X.x.YellChell.x.X
Summary: Senior year have all been set on a navigation program to one of the biggest mountains in Albuquerque for 3 whole weeks to test their skills. All students are put into pairs and who should be put together? The arrogant jock Troy Bolton, and the quiet nerd.
1. Paired Up

**Okay guys this story is wholly based in the mountains for the 3 weeks. I'm sorry I haven't continued with Working With the Star, a new chapter will coming for it soon! I keep getting all these ideas in my head and have to write them down! Hope you like this one.**

**xxx**

Gabriella Montez expertly ducked as a boiled egg came flying her way, splattering all over the locker behind her. She looked in the direction in which it came from and who would she see, a group of 18-year-old males laughing at her, the same males which had been laughing at her since her very first day at East High, in seventh grade.

"Too bad you didn't get that ugly hat" Zeke Baylor said to Troy Bolton, the egg thrower.

"More like too bad I didn't get her ugly face" Troy replied. Gabriella was certainly not an ugly girl; she had a soft and pretty face, one that you could rarely find walking down the street. Her father had always said she was a natural beauty. And Troy knew this too; he just loved the feeling of importance and superiority that came from insulting her.

Gabriella glared at the boys so harshly she thought she might shoot red laser beams from her eyes. She felt brave for a few moments, until she saw Troy's face which was almost one hundred times harsher than hers, and immediately, Gabriella felt scared of him, like always. She turned away and tried hard to find a sense of comfort through clutching her books tightly to her chest. She blinked away a tear that was ready to fall. _Every single morning_ Gabriella had to cop some stupid prank from Troy Bolton and his posse, however she was getting pretty good at avoiding them sometimes, after all the years of experience. Gabriella was smart enough to realise that it was only Troy that was the one who hated on her, his friends didn't really give a damn, they just followed Troy like he was the King and they were his servants. She may have discovered that, but she never discovered what Troy had against her. She stayed out of everyone's way, including his, she never caused a scene, and whenever there was trouble about, she was nowhere to be found.

When Gabriella finally reached her locker, she sighed out loud. Every second of every day she just wished that she could have at least _one_ friend to say hello to in the morning, but she had no one. She was friendless. She was too quiet to speak up and no one at East High made the effort to talk to her. Every single time that was a pairing in an assignment, Gabriella's partner had forced her to do all the work by herself. She sighed again as she moved the thought from her mind and began to slide out her math workbooks. She moved as slow as possible, trying to put off walking in the corridors of hell for as long as possible. She lifted her leg up to balance her bag on her knee, but dropped everything in fright as she heard her locker slam dangerously close to her head. She looked to see who the culprit was and her heart pace sped up when she saw that it was Troy Bolton. God he was gorgeous, even though his mouth was hard and his eyes were as cold as ice, he was close to perfect.

"Got that math homework I asked for last night Montez?" he said firmly. Gabriella swallowed the lump swelling in her throat and nodded slowly as she pulled out the frequent additional copy of the math homework due. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw him turn away after snatching the paper out of her hand and began to concern herself with her own copy of the same homework, "oh, one more thing. Chad forgot his homework today, so I'll be taking _that_" Troy said, snatching the paper from her hands.

"But, but…but it's th-"

"B-b-b-but, but, but" Troy mocked, "Like I care!" Those were his final words as he left to go to math, which was unfortunately the same class as hers.

"Great" Gabriella muttered, she was to go to class with unfinished homework, _again!_

. . .

Well, just as Gabriella had suspected, she landed herself a detention that very afternoon for her incomplete homework.

"_Attention please all seniors, I would like all of you to assemble in the Grade 12 meeting area at once to discuss the upcoming camp. Thank you, see you soon"_

All the seniors started to move again after freezing whenever there was a voice through the loudspeaker. After about 7 minutes, the entire year were seating in the meeting area, chattering loudly amongst themselves while they waited impatiently for the year coordinator to arrive.

"Okay everyone be quiet, I'm here" Mrs. Milkins, the year coordinator said, getting all their attention. "As you know, there has been the discussed camp looming very soon. But this year it's been changed to more of a program" she said, whispers immediately spread around, some getting pissed off that it had changed when they were already excited for the activities.

"To what?" Chad Danforth snapped.

"Navigation skills" she answered just harsh as Chad's tone. And instantaneously an uproar of groans began.

"That will be ass numbingly dull" Chad said, getting a detention from his language.

"We are all going to Mt. Buraugh and into the harsh bushland. You will all be pair into two, one navigating with the map and compass and the other compiling the appropriate signals using the bushland itself, such as rocks, pebbles, mounds of dirt, leaves, sticks etc."

"Do we get to choose who navigates and who does the other stuff?" Troy said, already planning his journey with his best friend Chad.

"No Mr. Bolton you don't, and I'm sorry but you and Chad will not be together. I will be choosing the pairs" she said, and immediately, Gabriella relaxed, she wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of trying to find her own partner. But meanwhile, Troy and Chad sat there _extremely_ pissed off, knowing they wouldn't have their own way. "Everyone! Quieten down, listen! I will be now calling out your pairs, so listen carefully alright?!" she yelled. Gabriella listened for her name and hoped to hell she would be with someone who was half decent and was prepared to be nice to her. And finally, Gabriella's name was called out, _I hope I'm with someone nice, please put me with someone nice,_ followed by Troy Bolton's, _SHIT!_

"WHAT?!" Troy yelled, standing up tall above everyone else, "you can't be serious!!" he yelled again.

"Troy I am, now sit down before I give you a detention" Mrs. Milkins said.

"That's so slack, everyone knows she's a loser and that I hate her! Why would you put me with her? To make my experience miserable?! I won't do it!" Troy said, trying to hold all the other anger in.

"Well it's up to you if you come or not, but I can tell you, Miss. Montez is a lovely girl and she will be the one passing 12th grade, and not you" she said eyeing him back into a sitting position.

Gabriella shifted her gaze over to Troy who was already glaring right at her. Gabriella looked at Mrs. Milkins, then back at Troy and shrugged, implying that they had no choice in the matter. Troy didn't break his glare at Gabriella once. He pursed his lips tight together and shook his head. It looked as though he would kill her right there.

_This is not fair. _Gabriella thought.

_This sucks more than a prostitute in Reno._ Troy thought.

. . .

That night Gabriella did her homework, as well as the homework that Troy needed, but kept getting distracted by her forever-set memory of being partnered with Troy for the bush navigational program!

"It's not fair mum. He's so mean to me and I don't do anything to him and now I have to survive 3 weeks, in a tent, in the middle of the bush with no escape!! With him!!" Gabriella whined. "I don't understand why we can't do it all in a big group, but noooo we have to go out into the wilderness with _one person_ all in separate directions. I mean what is that? WHAT IS _THAT?!"_ Gabriella yelled again. She glared at her mum when she noticed she was trying to cover up her chuckling. "Mum!!"

"It's alright sweetheart, just stick it out ok? 3 weeks will go by quickly before you know it. Maybe if you two are alone you might be nice to one another and simply try and get along, even if it's all superficial. At least it will be civilised."

"I doubt it" Gabriella mumbled nibbling on her bread roll.

. . .

"DAD!" Troy yelled as soon as his father, coach Bolton of the East High Wildcats, walked in the door.

"Whoa Troy, what is it son?" he asked looking concerned.

"Is there _any_ possible way you can _talk_ to Mrs. Milkins and get her to _un_-pair me with GABRIELL MONTEZ?!?!" He yelled. If Troy were a cartoon, steam would be coming from his ears and nostrils.

"Ah yes, I heard about that. No Troy, you're staying with Gabriella. If you ended up with one of your rowdy mates you would get _no_ work done, and wouldn't learn a thing. Sorry Troy" his dad said ruffling his fingers through his son's hair. Troy's fists clenched and his knuckles went white.

"Ok dad! I'll just go and hang from my fan now!" Troy yelled, storming up the stairs. His dad only smiled knowing full well he wasn't being serious. Troy sat down on his bed with his head in his hands. "Fuck"

…

…

…

"Alright everyone! Are you in your pairs? Alright then, now we've all discussed the directions in the wilderness and I certainly hope you remember, yes I'm looking at you Chad Danforth. Now, pair up and go out and find a spot for you both to pitch up your tent"

"Why aren't we doing this whole boy, boy and girl, girl in the tents thing?" Chad asked.

"You always have something to say or ask don't you Mr. Danforth?" Mrs. Milkins asked, "because we are doing boy, girl on the trip so it evens it all out. But if you feel it inappropriate, you can always sleep outside of the tent while your partner is inside. Does that answer your question?" she said, and Chad rolled his eyes, "ok everyone! GOOD LUCK!! And I shall see you all in 3 weeks! And have FUN!" she said walking off, leaving people mumbling to themselves. Chad slapped hands with Troy and gave him a half hug as he went of with his partner Taylor McKessi. Troy stood there as everyone left in their own directions, waiting for Gabriella to come to _him._ He looked around and as everyone had cleared he finally spotted her, standing shyly on her own, simply waiting until she could spot Troy and timidly trot over to him. She was wearing dark blue sweat pants, a black singlet and her hair was in a messy, high pony tail, pulled through the slightly too big trucker hat she was wearing. Troy ignored his head saying she looked absolutely adorable and just stormed over to her.

_Stick up for yourself Gabriella, stick up for yourself Gabriella. You can do it, you can do it. Have faith in yourself. _

"Get in my way, and you will pay. Okay?" Troy asked, completely ignoring the fact that his sentence just sounded like a short poem.

"Okay, we could make things out of clay, and play with hay, and maybe lay by the bay, we just may, what do you say?" Gabriella said strongly, mocking him, for the very first time in her life. And she felt…good. Troy whipped his head around glaring at her.

"What did you say?" Troy said, as if he were about to shoot her in the head.

"N-nothing. Which direction are we going in?" she asked quietly, trying to change the topic.

"I'm calling the shots, follow me" he said, barging off ahead of her, not caring if he left her behind. Gabriella as quick as she could, fixed up her big bag on her shoulders and ran very slowly after Troy walking next to him. Troy didn't like the feeling of having his most hated person next to him. His eyes travelled to her, and then the dark skin of her shoulders, and then the way her hair bounced when she walked and even managed to see a tiny bit of her flat, toned stomach. He found it difficult to tear his eyes away from her but forced his head to look in another direction, bringing his wondering eyes away from her.

After about an hour of walking up hill and through bush, they finally found a place they could set up camp.

"You have the tent geek?" Troy demanded and Gabriella nodded pulling it out of the side pocket in her bag, pulling out the pegs and poles. "Today would be nice" Troy said, so Gabriella sped up the pace a bit and chucked Troy a few poles he could put together and he gracefully caught them which Gabriella found rather impressive.

10 minutes had passed and setting up camp was almost finished, all Gabriella had to do was put a few more pegs in the ground to hold the tent up. She bent down to pick a couple up, and Troy couldn't help but look down her top at her cleavage. Feeling his eyes on her, Gabriella immediately stood up quick enough to catch Troy shamefully looking away from her chest.

"What were you looking at Troy?" Gabriella demanded, feeling insulted that all he could stare at were her boobs.

"N-nothing" he replied rubbing the back of his neck, it was the first time that Gabriella had the upper hand in the conversation.

"You were looking at my boobs weren't you?" Gabriella asked. Troy realised this whole conversation wasn't the way he wanted it to be!

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" he spat. Gabriella just glared at him and threw the remaining pegs at his chest.

"You do the rest!" Gabriella said angrily and went to grab some water from her bag. Troy got onto the work immediately, distracting himself from her amazing body.

"What's the first activity?" Troy said strongly. And once again, Gabriella shrunk back into the size of a mouse.

"We have to walk until we find a signal that one of the guide people have already set up for us. Then we come back and start with the food or whatever you want to do. It will take us about 3 hours" Gabriella said quietly.

"Great, 3 hours, alone, with the biggest geek in the school" he said as he watched Gabriella pull her hat further over her head. "Well are we gonna get going then?" he snapped.

"Yes" Gabriella replied in her mousey voice. They both put on their day packs on and made their way into the mountain, in complete silence.

It had been about 40 minutes and Gabriella couldn't stand the silence anymore. "Troy, we're going to have to communicate if we want to do this right" Gabriella whispered to him, but she immediate stepped back in shock when Troy turned to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Well look, this is why this camp or program crap is going to suck hard! I don't want to talk to you at all because I hate you which results in a fail and a shitty journey!" Troy yelled, pushing her backwards slightly when he released her from his grip. "Just fucking walk would you?" he snapped and Gabriella felt as if she were about to cry. She stood as still as a statue and watched Troy walk away from her. She furrowed her brow and grew angrier by the second. Letting her body take control and not her head, she stomped backwards and hid behind a huge tree so Troy couldn't see her. After about 6 seconds she heard Troy yell out her name.

"Where the hell are you?! Can you hurry the hell up!!" he said angrily, when he didn't hear a response, he brushed it off, thinking she would catch up in a minute, "have it your way then" and he continued walking.

Gabriella sighed when she heard Troy continue up the mountain. She ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction, feeling the tears slide down her cheeks. She wanted to get as far away from Troy as she possibly could.

"Oh god" Gabriella whispered, halting in her tracks, "this is the way right?" she said when she saw a tiny waterfall, just big enough to fill your drink bottle up with. "Oh man…" Gabriella began to panic when she discovered that she did _not_ remember passing it. "Where the hell am I?"


	2. We Got Back Alive

Troy really wasn't in the mood for being held responsible for the missing of young Gabriella Montez so he rolled his eyes and stomped back in the opposite direction looking for her.

"Don't screw with me Montez, we need to get this done. Just come out here would you!?" Troy said, his voice growing louder with each word. Although he didn't show it, Troy began to panic. What if he had really lost her? "Gabriella!!" he yelled out. "GABRIELLA!! Where the hell are you?!" he yelled again, getting no response.

Gabriella whipped her head around, thinking she heard Troy call out of her name. "Which way did that come from?" she asked herself. She heard her name again but thought it came from in front of her. "No, it came from my left…no, wait. My…right? Crap!" Gabriella began to panic even more. _What if I never find my way back? _She thought. She didn't want to humiliate herself so she didn't call out Troy's name. _I can do this. _"I'm supposed to be practicing navigational skills right?" Gabriella whispered, sighing at her words. She turned around and began to walk back, thinking she might have missed a turn at some point.

20 minutes later

"My navigational skills suck" Gabriella said, kicking a rock with her foot and sending it flying down the small steep hill. She looked over the edge and saw there was another walking path there, but there was no sign of Troy, or anyone. Gabriella groaned in frustration and worry. She smacked her head finally admitting that what she did was stupid. Gabriella jumped in fright when she saw a large lizard rush by the path, almost scaring her to death. She put her hand on her chest and stepped back, only rolling her ankle on a sharp tree root sticking out of the ground. She went to put her hand out to lean back on the ground as she fell, but there was nothing, only the steep free fall which she sent the rock she kicked flying down earlier. "AHH!" Gabriella squealed as she toppled down the hill. Her water bottle came flying out of her bag, along with a thermos. But they didn't land on the ground.

"Oww! What the shit?" Troy said as he rubbed his head, "what the hell is this?" he asked himself grabbing the drink bottle lying on the dirt. He frowned in confusion and slowly looked up as he heard a large something falling down the hill at an incredible amount of speed! "WH- AH!" Troy screamed as Gabriella fell right on top of him, sending them both to the ground. "What? What?! WHAT THE HELL MONTEZ?! What the hell are you doing? Where the hell were you? WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ON TOP OF ME!?"

Before Gabriella could even comprehend what Troy was saying, she was just glad she was still alive! It's a wonder why she didn't smash into a tree or got a concussion.

"U-Uhh…" she began, "I-I-I" she was so nervous, and so afraid that she couldn't help but stutter. Troy took noticed of their chests heaving up and down in time, Gabriella's breasts pressed right up against him, which also didn't go unnoticed by her. "I guess I found you then…" she said. Troy's head was telling him to push Gabriella off of him, but his body didn't seem to let him. They were staring at each other until Gabriella realised what was happening. "Oh…" she said and quickly got off him.

"What the hell were you thinking just pissing off into the bush alone?" Troy demanded.

"Well, I didn't like hearing you speak to me like that, and calling me all those names, so I left" she said timidly, that was a fair enough reason she thought.

"For fucks sake Montez…" Troy said as he rubbed his forehead with the ball of his hand.

"You were worried about me weren't you?" she asked, with a cheeky grin on her face, and suddenly, someone seemed to open a jar of butterflies in his stomach.

"No!" he snapped immediately.

"What? You don't think I can survive out here on my own?" She asked folding her arms across her chest.

"Well obviously not!! You got lost for an hour and almost killed yourself, taking me down with you!" he yelled, "we're going back to camp" he said sourly.

"Why? We're not done yet" Gabriella asked.

"Well if you weren't so bloody stupid and didn't run off like that then you would realise that all the time is up. Everyone will be back at their tents setting up the food!" Troy said, "honestly, I thought geeks like you were supposed to be smart" he said, chucking her drink bottle at her which Gabriella barely caught. Gabriella was so hurt that she unscrewed the lid on her water bottle, walking over to Troy and sprayed it all over him. "OI!" he said throwing his arms up and stepping back, observing his soaked front. "What the hell was that for?!" he yelled, grabbing his own drink bottle and squirting water all over her. Gabriella squealed and wiped the water from her face.

"Well what was _that_ for?!" she yelled back.

"Because you did it to me!"

"Because you were mean to me!" Gabriella snapped back, since she didn't have any water left, she threw her drink bottle, hitting him right in the head.

"Ow shit!" Troy growled.

"You deserved that!" she snapped, stepping on his foot, "and that!!" she yelled again, grabbing her drink bottle off the floor and storming off ahead of him. Troy had never seen this side of her, and for some bizarre reason he found it…attractive.

"Where are you going now?" he asked squinting his eyes and rubbing his foot.

"Back to camp! Where the hell do you think?" she snapped at him. Troy rolled his eyes at her response and walked in the same direction as her, at least she was going the right way this time. Just when Gabriella thought she was in a little bit of charge, Troy bumped past her, almost knocking her over.

Back at camp

"Well we actually both got back alive didn't we?" Troy said to Gabriella using a harsh tone and shooting daggers through his eyes. Gabriella looked away in embarrassment; she couldn't believe she did what she did! She should have just copped all the crap by staying with Troy. She watched him as he went into the tent and she sighed, taking a sip from the little amount of water she had left. She looked out into the video and shielded her eyes with her hands and took a deep breath. She liked the feeling of being away from everything, away from East High and all the bullies, even though she was stuck with the biggest bully in school, she was having her peaceful moments. Without thinking, she knelt down and crawled into her tent to get another set of clothes out.

Her breath caught in her throat when she saw a shirtless Troy, staring right at her, just as frozen as she was.

"I'm sorry!" she said quickly jumping out of the tent, tripping on her way. "Shit, shit, shit, shit" she whispered to herself, which Troy heard. From some weird reason, Troy smiled slightly and shook his head.

"Fuck!" he whispered to himself, when he realised what he was thinking "use your brain Montez!" he yelled out.

"S-Sorry" she said again, standing still on the spot. When Troy came out of the tent, Gabriella refused to look him in the eyes, "I'll start some dinner" she mumbled and Troy just nodded. Troy hid in the tent and lay down on her jacket, "god I'm so stupid" she whispered with a tear rolling down her eye. She closed her eyes, and before she new it, she drifted off into a light sleep.

15 minutes later

"What the hell are you doing in there Montez?" Troy asked angrily, getting impatient. "Oi geek!" he pulled back the flap from the tent and looked in to see Gabriella sleeping peacefully on the ground. For a moment, Troy wondered what it would feel like to wrap Gabriella up in his arms, but put that thought from his mind right away. "Hey!" Troy said a little louder than normal tone.

"Mmmmwhat?" Gabriella asked rubbing her eyes, "oh, how long was I asleep?" she asked Troy.

"Like I'm supposed to know? I wasn't watching you, how about getting all the food crap and we start cooking, I'm bloody starving" he said walking out of the tent and Gabriella immediately got to work. She came outside with the small pots and pans and canned food and saw that Troy had almost gotten a small fire going.

The whole evening, Troy and Gabriella practically sat in total silence. Troy yawned and stretched his arms above his head, not caring how much noise he was making.

"No need to wake the whole mountain up" Gabriella mumbled into her hand which she was lazily resting her head in.

"What was that?" Troy snapped.

"Um, maybe we should go to bed because you seem tired" Gabriella said.

"Oh we have a set bedtime do we? Okay sure, mum" Troy said and they started to pack everything up. Gabriella stood up and stepped on a stick which knocked a can of almost boiling hot water on her leg. She squealed at the burning pain, it wasn't enough to cause serious burns but it as _bloody hot!_ She fell over and before she knew it, Troy had a wrapped a cold, wet towel around her leg. She was breathing deeply and looked at him while he kept his head down.

"Did you predict I was going to burn my leg or something?" Gabriella asked, wondering how he got to her so fast.

"No, I just think fast" he replied shrugging, "plus you didn't burn your leg, it's just going to be very red in the morning" he said, finally looking at her and Gabriella nodded. Troy noted the smoothness of Gabriella's legs and how her beautiful dark skin gleamed in the firelight.

"Umm I think I'm okay now Troy, I'll hold it" she said and Troy immediately stood up and let go, thinking she thought he was hitting on her.

"Yep, see you in the tent" he said, basically diving inside leaving Gabriella out alone. She slowly stood up, her leg was fine to walk on, it just felt slightly numb in parts. She crawled in the tent and found her way to her bag and rummaged around for her sleeping bag.

"Oh shit" she whispered.

"What?" Troy growled.

"Nothing" Gabriella said back and lay down, immediately starting to shiver.

"What the hell is the problem? Just tell me Montez" Troy said, getting angry.

"I-I forgot my s-sleeping bag" she said, wrapping her arms around her body.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" he said.

"What?? It's not your problem Troy!" Gabriella snapped back, getting angry that he was getting angry.

"Yeah it, now I have to share my sleeping bag with you"

"I won't fit" she said stubbornly.

"It's a double bed sleeping bag. Would you just get in? I don't want to find you frozen to death tomorrow morning and be held responsible ok. Just get in" Troy demanded. Gabriella slipped in his sleeping bag, causing as little movement as possible. She lay her head down, only managing to hit it on a rock.

"Ouch!"

"Argh, what?" Troy snapped again, "you forgot a fucking pillow didn't you?" Troy asked. Gabriella didn't say anything, but he sensed her nod, "here" Troy said. He pulled his pillow over a bit so there was just enough room for Gabriella's head. "You sure do know how to be a pain in the ass, now it will be impossible to get comfortable" he said moving around. Thinking he had turned his back to her, Gabriella rolled over, only to have her nose bum into Troy's nose. They both gasped, but neither moved.


	3. No More North, South, East or West

Troy and Gabriella's hearts were beating very fast. Troy's natural reaction would be to head butt her and move right away, but he seemed to be frozen. Before Gabriella could say something stupid and embarrass herself more than she already had, she backed away from Troy and lay her head down on the pillow. Troy did the same, pretending none of it had happened. It took ages for Gabriella to get to sleep, she didn't know why. She heard Troy's steady breathing; _he must be in a deep sleep_ Gabriella thought. But she was wrong, Troy was very awake, staring straight at the roof of the tent with wide eyes. What the hell was going on? Neither of them knew.

Gabriella was awoken by the sound of chirping birds and rustling leaves. She yawned and blinked her eyes a few times, only to see a strong arm wrapped over her shoulder, his hand resting on her hand. Her breath caught in her throat when she realised that Troy was holding her tightly, like she was his own. She was about to jump out of his embrace and cuss at him, but she wouldn't budge. As much as she tried to deny it, she liked the feeling.

_Shit time to get up_ Troy thought. He wondered why he could smell something nice, it was Gabriella's hair! Troy's face was buried in her hair, and holding her like he was crazy about her! Troy was about to race out of the sleeping bag and run to any water he could find and dive in to get rid of the Gabriella germs. That was the stupidest term ever, Gabriella germs. Gabriella's hair smelt beautiful and her skin was softer than a baby's.

Gabriella was thinking of a plan to find a way out of Troy's arms. But when she felt his grip tighten around her, all her blue prints fizzled away. Instead, she yawned loudly and began to move and felt Troy's arms immediately let go of her and noticed his whole body rolled away with his back facing her. Was he awake? _Of course not, he wouldn't be doing that if he was awake_ Gabriella thought. She wriggled out of the sleeping bag and chucked on a huge jumper she had already layed out for the mornings.

"Troy" she whispered, poking his shoulder blade. Troy felt everything and heard everything she said, but pretended to be in a deep sleep. "Troy…it's time to get up" she said, pushing his whole body gently. "Troy" she said louder, "Troy!" she said, kicking him in the back.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Troy asked angrily like he had been awake for ages.

"To wake you up, even though you seem wide awake already…" Gabriella asked suspiciously.

"Uh…yeah I'm used to it" Troy said, "from basketball training" he said again, nodding.

"Ok" Gabriella said, believing him, "well we should have breakfast and get going"

"Cool, call me when you've got it done yeah?" he demanded, burying his face back in his pillow, which now smelt like Gabriella's hair.

"When what's done?"

"The breakfast! What else?" Troy said in his pillow.

"Sure, okay" Gabriella replied, smirking.

"Good" Troy mumbled, burying his face back in the pillow, and smelling Gabriella's newly found scent.

7 minutes later.

"It's done Troy" Gabriella said from outside, sitting on a small rock, eating some toast. Troy came out of the tent with bed hair, looking ultra sexy. Gabriella quickly looked away before she couldn't stop staring at him.

"Where's mine?" Troy asked.

"Where's your what?" Gabriella asked back innocently.

"My breakfast! I told you to call me when it's done!" he said angrily.

"Oh, well you said call you when it's done, I didn't know you meant your breakfast as well" she said, playing dumb and shrugging her shoulders.

"Well let's make it clear for next time. Tomorrow morning, get _our_ breakfast" he commanded.

"Ok, I'll make this clear for you, _no_" she spat back stubbornly.

"Excuse me?" Troy asked, taken aback.

"I'm not your slave Troy! Look after yourself, I'm not your mummy. Am I your mother Troy? Troy?! Answer me that would you, am…I…your…mother?" Gabriella demanded, staring right at him until he gave her an answer.

"Fuck no, thank god" he replied

"Exactly! So stop treating me like a mother who does everything for you. And if she does, then you have to grow up" she said, walking right into the tent to get dressed. She pulled out a pair of knee length shorts and another one of her thousands of singlet tops. She peeled off her pyjama top and pulled on her shorts.

"Oi Montez do w-" Troy walked into the tent, and stopped what he was saying when he saw Gabriella wearing a black and pink bra right in front of him. Before he attacked her to the floor right there, he scrambled out of the tent in a daze, wondering if what he had seen was real. The perfect body now exists.

"Well now we're even" Gabriella came out saying.

"Huh?" Troy asked.

"We have both seen each other shirtless" Gabriella replied in a 'duh' tone.

"Oh…yeah" he murmured.

…

"You have to make this symbol…" Gabriella began, pointing to a picture on a laminated sheet of paper, "…out of these rocks we've collected" Gabriella said, passing them all to Troy.

"How about you do it" Troy said smugly. It's not that he didn't want to, more like he had no idea what he was doing.

"Why would I? It's your job. I've got the compass and the map, which means I'm the navigator. And you kneel on the ground makes hills out of dirt which means you're the little bitch" Gabriella said grinning like it was an everyday conversation. Troy shot daggers at her through his eyes and Gabriella just stood comfortably waiting for him. "Considering you said you can do all of this in your sleep, I'll meet you at the top of the hill. Surely you don't need the map or compass?" Gabriella said grinning again, "see you" she whispered and then walked off up the hill. Troy watched her leave and watched the way her perfectly toned legs and feet wondered up the hill, stepping around rocks and over large tree branches. So Troy quickly made a half assed effort with the symbol and caught up to her after about 7 minutes.

"Back so soon?" Gabriella asked. Troy just rolled his eyes and cracked his knuckles and saw Gabriella wince at the sound. He would be doing _that_ more often.

"I wish I was playing basketball with Chad and Zeke…" Troy mumbled, which Gabriella heard. Troy looked at her and saw her expression changed from confident to shy and upset. "You're not gonna cry are you Montez?" Troy asked, mockingly.

"How could you be so heartless? You wish you were playing basketball, I wish I was pushing you off that cliff right there so you drown in the water!" she said with a few weak tears slipping down her cheeks. Gabriella pushed his arm, not _really_ intending to push him off the cliff but just to make a point. However, Troy thought she did plan on pushing him to his death! So he stepped out of the way making Gabriella lose her balance since all her weight was towards Troy. She went to put her other foot in front of her to stop herself but her foot got caught underneath a protruding tree root. "AHHH!!" she screamed as she went toppling over the cliff. Troy stopped laughing and bolted over to her, not being able to reach her, but seeing her uncomfortably landing on a thick branch and managing to hold on to it with her hands before she kept falling. Her legs swung out from under her, and her Ed Hardy trucker hat came flying off, along with 2 apples from her bag and the compass. "Troy help!!" she screamed looking down. The cliff wasn't absolutely colossal but it sure wasn't tiny! If she fell she could be seriously hurt, or drown if she was extremely unlucky.

"Hold on! Just hold tight, I'm coming" Troy said as he dropped his bag on the ground and hurriedly, but carefully pushed his way through the sticking out twigs and thousands of leaves on the ground until he reached the very, very edge of the cliff. He too held onto a sticking out branch and stretched his arm out to Gabriella as far as possible. He saw her crying, and his heart went out to her so badly, "it's okay Gabriella, try not to panic. I need you to help ok, are you listening?" he asked calmly and Gabriella nodded. "I need you to try and hurl yourself a little bit further across the branch so I can reach you, can you do that? Can you do that for me?" Troy asked calmly.

"Y-yes" Gabriella managed to say. She took a deep breath and put all her effort into heaving her arms across the branch, only centimetres away from her rescuer.

"Ok. Good, good, I've almost got you, take my hand and I can pull you over ok?" Troy said calmly again. If Gabriella didn't know him, his tone would've convinced her that he was really from the state's top rescue crew. Just as Gabriella was about to latch onto Troy, a large bird, which neither of them saw, came flying across straight over Gabriella's head. "AHH!!" She screamed again as she felt herself lose her grip on the branch. "Troy!" she yelled. She was holding onto the branch with one hand, feeling as if her arm was about to snap off, her fingers slowly slid further and further down the branch.

"NO!" Troy yelled as he desperately tried to reach out to her. Troy managed to grab onto her wrist but noticed Gabriella's eyes were shutting, "don't faint!" he yelled. "Montez!!" he screeched as she fell, dragging him down with her. Troy couldn't think straight, he just kept on falling and falling, the rushing air in his face almost prevented him from breathing, then BANG! They both crashed into the water below them. When Troy managed to get his sense of coordination back, he finally resurfaced, gasping for his life. He whipped his head around constantly, looking for Gabriella. "Where the hell is she????" he said. Troy started to panic big time, he ducked his head back under and looked around for her. He spotted her floating upside down, still with her backpack attached to her. He swam over to her as fast as possible, still gasping for air himself. He plunged under the water and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her to the surface. He looked around for a bay anywhere and managed to find a small rocky area in which he could take her. Without hesitation, Troy pulled Gabriella along with him, swimming with one arm, struggling to high heavens. He got up on the rocks first and gently pulled Gabriella up with him. He shakily moved all the strands of hair around her face and tried to get a response from her, but there was nothing. The last thing that was on Troy's list was to put his mouth against Gabriella's, but right now he had no choice. He lowered his head and began to perform CPR. No response. "Fuck don't do this!" he said through his teeth. No response. He tried again, harder than before. No response. "FUCK!" he yelled out, if she died it would put a whole dampner on his _life!_ He fell back on his arms, until he heard a blubber and splatter coming from Gabriella. He scrambled over to her and cradled her head in his hands, just to make sure she was okay, that's all. He saw tears running down her cheeks already and she was obviously delirious.

"Did you save me Troy?" Gabriella mumbled, with Troy barely understanding what she said.

"In a way…" Troy responded awkwardly, "how the hell could you do this to me Montez? You just have to go falling off cliffs don't y-"

"Thank you" she said suddenly, interrupting him. Even when Gabriella just woke up from almost being dead, he still had time to make fun of her.

"Yeah, it's okay" he replied.

"Why are you all wet?" she asked, confused.

"We fell off the cliff and landed in the water" he began, "and I saved you" he said smiling, but immediately wiped it off his face. "Now the question is, how the hell do we get out of here?" Troy said, looking up at the sky and the enormous rocks around him. Gabriella began to get up, but groaned from pain. "Hey, be careful, just lie back down" he said, as if he actually cared. He managed to slide Gabriella's backpack off and rummaged through it. "Even though it will be soaked I'm sure we can read the map, and we just need the compass…"

"Th-the compass should be in the s-side pocket" she said shivering. Troy looked at her sympathetically and took off his jacket and placed it over her, even though it was soaking wet as well. Troy continued to look in the side pocket, but all he could see was a packet of soggy chewing gum.

"It's not here"

**Okay guys, I know none of this would happen in real life, but it's just a story! And I'm sorry that this chapter was short, there will be longer ones I promise!**

**ily**

**xxx**


	4. Deadly Attraction

"What do you mean it isn't there?" Gabriella asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

"Exactly that, it's not here" Troy replied.

"M-maybe it fell out" Gabriella said, very worried.

"Great. You dropped it, it's lost which means we are lost" Troy said, kicking a rock into the water angrily.

"Give me a break Troy, I was holding on for dear life, trying to keep everything safe in my bag was the _last_ thing on my mind!" Gabriella said, unsteadily standing up.

"Whatever" Troy said as he peeled off his shirt revealing his steel abs and smooth skin.

"What are you doing?" Gabriella asked.

"Going for a swim, relaxes me" he said. Since the only shorts he packet were boardies, he dived gracefully in the water, "well are you coming in then?" Troy asked. In fact it wasn't really a question, more of a demand.

"Well I'm kind of traumatised by water suddenly…" Gabriella said, making Troy chuckle.

"Montez I'm not going to let you drown okay?" Troy said, ducking his head down and doing a flip under water, "come on!" he said as he resurfaced. Gabriella looked down at her body, she wore a bikini when she went to the beach, but there was something a bit different about going in the water in lingerie. "You think I haven't seen a female body before?" Troy mocked. Gabriella sighed and just did what she was told, maybe going for a dip might get their thoughts straight, even though she just had a life threatening experience, what else would they do? Gabriella pulled off her shoes and socks and self-consciously unbuttoned her shirt. Troy was watching her the whole time, he didn't know why, but his heartbeat sped up and he suddenly became nervous. Troy's eyes followed her hands as she slid her cute shorts down her legs. Suddenly Troy stopped moving and forgot to breath, the only thing to snap him out of his trance was the realisation that he was slowly going under water. _Shit!_ He thought and quickly resurfaced, this time _not_ facing Gabriella.

_It's okay, you'll be underwater and Troy won't even see you. At least he's not looking now_ Gabriella thought. She nervously stepped down a few rocks and waded into the water, since she was already freezing it was actually quite nice. She began to tread water but couldn't see Troy anywhere. "Troy?"

"Yeah?" he said as he immediately bobbed up in front of her. Gabriella squealed and put her hand to her chest.

"Did you not notice that I am a bit on edge at the moment? You're lucky I didn't just have a heart attack! I'm already scared out of my wits" Gabriella snapped, "you're lucky I even came in"

"Oh I'm not lucky, I couldn't really care less" Troy said back. Rage bubbled up inside Gabriella like boiling water on a hot plate. She finally let it out and lunged at Troy, dunking his head under water.

"Maybe you will drown after all!!" She shouted loudly. Troy managed to resurface for a second but Gabriella just slapped him on the head and pushed him back under. Suddenly, she felt his hands on her waist and she got dragged down. She stared at him through the murky water and noticed he was smiling. She narrowed her eyes and kicked him in the chest with her foot. They both resurfaced and Troy watched the way Gabriella's body moved elegantly as she swam away from him.

"No you don't" he said and grabbed onto her ankle.

"Troy let go! This is sexual harassment. Touching my ankle, touching my waist…get off me!" she yelled, splashing at the water with her other leg, but he just kept pulling her towards him.

"Sexual harassment?" he said laughing out loud. "Attempting to kiss you and removing all your clothes without your consent would be sexual harassment" he said still laughing, but he abruptly stopped laughing and wondered what it would be like kissing her and removing all the remaining clothing she was wearing. He suddenly splashed Gabriella with water and went under, swimming over to a small cascading waterfall. "Well come on!!" he shouted out to her. Gabriella just rolled her eyes and swam over to him.

"Ayyy check it out!" Troy said as he went straight behind the falling water, "come on Montez"

"Troy, come back!" Gabriella said "I'm s-scared" she whimpered. Out of the blue, she felt Troy tangle his fingers with hers and pull her slowly under the water and behind the waterfall, not letting go of her hand. "Wow, it's almost like a little house under here, you wonder if someone lives here" she said, mesmerised by what she had seen. She looked down at her hand and still noticed Troy was holding on to it.

"Yep, I could do this place up a bit and build a lovely summer home here" he said chuckling. He looked at Gabriella and expected her to laugh a bit but she was just looking directly at him. Not blinking, not moving, like she was a statue. "What's wrong with you?"

"You're still holding on to my hand" she said. Troy looked down at their linked hands and didn't let go for a bit. He wanted to keep holding it, but he managed to immediately snatch his hand away, pretending like none of it happened. Troy walked away and went to sit on a rock. "So what are we going to do then?" he asked Gabriella, "we have the map, but have no compass" Troy said.

"I don't know, why are you asking me? All because I am the highest in our year and you are probably the dumbest doesn't mean I know _everything_" she snapped back. Troy just sighed and so did Gabriella, "I think there is some random written tutorial on the back of the map that teaches you how to work out where north is with the sun" she said hopefully.

"I think we both know you'll be doing that" Troy said, drumming his fingers on his knees.

"No shit" Gabriella mumbled. "Hey look at that" she said pointing behind Troy.

"What?" he asked, turning around to look where she was pointing. He turned back around again and felt Gabriella's bare thigh brush the side of his arm. She had already made her way to the carvings behind him. But right now, Troy didn't give a shit about the carvings, he had touched Gabriella so many times today that he was almost beginning to feel turned on.

"Come and have a look at th-…Troy?" Gabriella asked, wondering where the hell he was. She couldn't see him anywhere. "Troy??" she said again, hearing her voice echo in the area she was in. She began to panic and realised she would have to pass the waterfall by herself, without Troy holding her hand. She paddled into the water and took a deep breath and sunk beneath the surface, swimming as far as she could before she ran out of breath. She emerged from the water and brushed the hair out of her face, "Troy!" she called out to Troy who was swimming as fast as possible back to the rock where all there crap was. She began to swim over to the rock very confused.

"Are you okay Troy? Why did you swim away?" Gabriella asked in a worried tone.

"Time to go, we're just wasting time" he said fixing up both their bags, which had only dried the tiniest bit in the sun. Troy left his shirt off and just chucked it in the bag.

"Um, okay then" Gabriella said as she pulled on her soggy shorts. _Ewww_ she said in her mind. Troy turned around and saw Gabriella slipping her shirt back on and fixing her bra straps, his heart beat sped up even more he thought he was about to have a stroke. He turned away and rubbed his eyes.

"Fuck…" he mumbled. Gabriella knew something was up.

"Troy what's wrong?" she said, touching his shoulder.

"Don't touch me" he snapped. If she touched him one more time he would probably slam his lips onto hers, sending them both back into the water and take all her clothes off.

"Don't touch you? The least you could do is let me tap you on the shoulder so you can turn around and talk to me!" Gabriella said, feeling upset at his rejection. "Now tell me what's wrong"

"I feel extremely sick" Troy said convincingly.

"Oh, well do you want to sit down a bit longer? I mean trying to find a way out of here is going to be tough to think of" Gabriella said smiling.

"We can go up those rocks and I can see a path which we can take, we can work it out from there" he said quickly. Troy so badly wanted to feel Gabriella against his body, against his mouth and wanted to feel her hands tangled in his hair and wanted to run his hands all over her body. So badly that he wanted to get the hell away from her so he had quickly thought up that plan.

"Oh ok then, well do you want to sit down or go now?"

"Go now" he said without hesitation.

"Okay captain" Gabriella snapped and angrily put her backpack on and made her way to where Troy said to go. She climbed up the small rocky hill by herself. Troy was shocked, he thought he would have had to go up first and then help her. He would've if she wasn't pissed off though. He watched Gabriella pull her hair out of its elastic and he chuckled to himself.

"I'm fucking going mad" he said bashing his head.

AND HOUR AND A HALF LATER

"Ahhhhh" Gabriella groaned as she plopped down inside the tent. Troy dared not go into a small sheltered area with her, god knows what he would do to her. "One and a half hours of walking uphill. Kill me" she said which Troy heard and smiled at. Before she knew it, Gabriella had drifted off into sleep. Troy was feeling mighty tired himself and he wanted to lie down too, but Gabriella was in there!

"Argh fuck it" he said. He vowed not even to look at Gabriella but as soon as he ducked into the tent, the first thing he laid his eyes upon was Gabriella, curled up into a ball, sleeping soundly. He cleared his throat and lay down on the sleeping bag next to her. Out of habit, he rolled onto his side but came face to face with Gabriella. "No. no, no, no, no" he said and quickly rolled to the other side, facing his back to her. Now he felt much better.

2 HOURS LATER

Troy turned in his sleep and finally ended up waking up. He looked at Gabriella to see if she was awake but she was still sound asleep. She had obviously been moving because her shirt had been lifted half way up her stomach. _Is she setting me up? Is she trying to trick me? Does she want to lure me in so she can kill me? _Troy thought so himself. He sat up and stretched out, taking his mind off Gabriella and focusing on the food he was about the cram down his mouth. He was starving! Just as he was about to get up, he felt Gabriella roll to her side, unknowingly close to Troy. Her stomach was resting against Troy's leg. He got up and ran out of the tent, knocking of pots and pans and tripping on a rock and landing on his back. Gabriella stuck her head out of the tent squinting her eyes.

"What happened to you?" Gabriella asked, noticing that the sun was going down.

"I just tripped, that's all" he replied, "we have to get dinner going" Troy said.

"Umm Troy, I'm actually not that hungry, I'm still really tired. But I don't have to go back in the tent I can help you" she happily said. Even though she was tired, she enjoyed helping people whether she hated them or not.

"No go back in the tent" Troy said just as Gabriella was picking up the cans and knocked over pots.

"Uh…are you sure you don't want help? No offence Troy, but…you suck at this" Gabriella said.

"Just go back in, you're tired and I'm starving. I can do it" he said, not looking at her.

"Alright, just wake me if you need help" Gabriella said kindly and Troy nodded. _God how can she be so kind?_ Troy thought to himself. Man he needed to get his thoughts straight!

Just as Gabriella was slipping into Troy's sleeping bag, she saw him out of the crack in the tent's door flap. His gray hoodie was covering half his head and he was trying to start a fire. He looked very cute and Gabriella wondered if there was more to him and why the fuck she was attracted to him every time she saw his body and every time he touched her. Suddenly, Troy's eyes found hers and Gabriella gasped and fell down onto the pillow. _Oh shit he caught me staring!_ Troy just grinned to himself.

_Why the hell am I smiling? I hate her, I hate her, I hate her. She's a massive nerd with no friends, I gotta start being mean to her again, she's driving me crazy! No she's not…_

"Man I am in serious denial" he whispered to himself.

20 minutes had gone by and Troy was very proud of himself for doing everything without the help of his partner. He crawled back into the tent and noticed Gabriella had left room for him to fit in the sleeping bag. No way was he getting in there! He just tried to smooth out the unbearably uncomfortable ground he was about to fall asleep on. He rested his head on a pile of clothes he had made for a pillow. _This sucks._

ONE HOUR LATER

The sound of mumbling and shivering waked Gabriella up, obviously coming from Troy. "Troy?" Gabriella whispered croakily.

"H-huh?" Troy replied. Gabriella could see him shaking slightly and even heard his teeth chattering.

"What the hell are you doing? Aren't you cold?" She asked.

"No. I'm fine"

"Get in" she ordered.

"No. I'm fi-"

"GET IN!" she said again and Troy did as he was told, he was freezing his arse off anyway. He slipped into his sleeping bag and immediately felt Gabriella's body heat. "See you're not freezing anymore and you can get a good night's sleep"

_Not likely_ Troy thought. Gabriella rolled over and Troy could smell the pretty scent of her hair again. He breathed in deeply and heard Gabriella roll over to face him. She had her eyes closed and had no idea Troy was staring at her. His face was inches away from hers and the jar of butterflies were in his stomach again. He could hear her steady breathing again and noticed she had fallen back to sleep. God she must've been exhausted! Troy's mouth started to get dry, he needed water. He reached out his arm to grab his drink bottle, but realised it was on Gabriella's side. "Why does the world hate me?" he whispered. Slowly, very slowly, trying not to wake Gabriella up again, he sat up and began to lean across her to grab his drink bottle. He placed one hand on the ground over Gabriella, so he was practically on top of her now. As soon as he managed to get it, he felt Gabriella stir beneath him. He stayed as still as possible until she was quiet again, but that didn't work.

"Troy? What on earth are you doing?" she asked shocked.

"G-getting my drink bottle" he replied

"Your drink bottle?"

"Yeah, I was thirsty, is that a problem?" he asked her.

"No, but you could've just asked me to get it for you"

"I don't need you to do everything for me Montez" Troy said angrily, he needed to go back to hating her!

"Get off me" she said.

"What if I don't want to?" Troy replied, trying to tick her off, but it wasn't really working. Gabriella was actually quite warm beneath him.

"Get off Troy" she said again.

"Make me" he said.

"Make you? Okay, I will make you" she said. And for a moment, nothing was happening. Until Troy felt the touch of her fingers graze across Troy's skin, just above his trackies. He jumped slightly but still didn't move. Gabriella figured since Troy hated her, touching him would get him to back right away. _He's just being strong_ she thought. So this time she ran all her fingers up and down his chest under his wife beater. She ran her hands down his strong arms and traced circles just above his pants. _Okay, he seems to be handling this well…shit._ So Gabriella gently lifted her knee so it pressed softly in between Troy's legs and he immediately rolled off and faced his back to her without a word. Gabriella grinned at her success, but also felt quite hurt at the same time. _Why do I feel hurt? I should have hated doing that!_

Troy's body was shaking and his heart was just about at exploding point. He couldn't think straight. He wanted that to go further so badly that it made him feel sick to the stomach. He couldn't like Gabriella Montez…he honestly couldn't. _It's just being away from civilisation and my friends and stranded in this god-forsaken place…it's making me crazy. Yep. That's it._ He thought to himself and it actually made him feel a lot better. But then he thought of her wondering the corridors of school with her books pressed tightly to her chest with her head down…he still didn't seem to hate that image. He liked her very much, he just didn't realise it yet, but what he did realise was that he was attracted to her like a moth to a flame. _Fuck._


	5. Fireworks

"Troy get up!" Gabriella yelled, "why are you so tired?" she asked him.

"MMmmgahhhfffshh" he said into the pillow.

"Look I'm already dressed, we have to make up for the time we lost yesterday so we're getting up extra early" Gabriella said kicking him.

"Ow! Why are you so angry? Are you PMSing?" he asked and Gabriella kicked him again.

"NO! I am not 'PMSing' and don't worry, when we get back to school I'll be geeky Gabi again." She said.

"Let's hope so" he said and Gabriella felt a small portion of her heart drop off. Troy could see the hurt in her face and he too felt a section of his heart crumble. "Troy not to fall of any cliffs today okay?" he said to her.

"Try not to hurt my feelings today okay?" she said back and walked out of the tent slipping her jumper over her head. "Here" she said sticking her hand back in the tent and handing him a banana. "You don't have time for breakfast and I've got more fruit in my bag so you can eat that if you want it"

"Yeah okay just rewind shall we?" Troy got out of the tent and stood right in front of her, "I'm Troy Bolton. You're Gabriella Montez aka Geeky Gabi. You shouldn't be bossing me around, I should be bossing _you_ around. You shouldn't be making smart arse comments, _I _should."

"Why does it have to be that way Troy?" Gabriella said cutting him off, "none of your friends are around. It's just us, no one can see the way we act or how we treat each other okay? What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of shit okay? It's just the way it's meant to be!" he replied, not coming up with anything better.

"Lots of things aren't meant to be" she said and for a few moments they both got lost in each others eyes.

"You're so full of shit" Troy said bending over to get the banana which she dropped. Gabriella's eyes narrowed and she picked up a broken branch, almost too heavy for her and smacked Troy right in his side making him fall over. "Fuck! What is it with you and attacking me?!" he yelled out on the ground.

"Apologise to me or I will give you a broken nose!" Gabriella said, holding the branch above her head.

"What the hell?" Troy said, almost protecting his face.

"BROKEN NOSE TROY!!" she yelled, gripping the branch tighter.

"Alright! Sorry! I'm sorry okay?" he yelled and Gabriella just dropped the stick behind her and got on with whatever she was doing. Troy went inside the tent to get dressed, still traumatised. However, thinking of Gabriella standing above him with an angry face, holding a stick that was almost twice her size was rather cute. _Fuck Troy get over it!_ This was going to be awful for Troy, each night he had to share a pillow and sleeping bag with Gabriella. When Troy had finally exited the tent Gabriella was already walking.

"It's about time, hurry up" she snapped.

"How do you know where we're going?" Troy asked.

"I just do. Just trust me okay?" she said and Troy just shrugged his shoulders and followed her.

45 MINUTES LATER.

"Look, here's one of the symbols another pair have left. Write it down, describe it and sketch it if you can be bothered" Gabriella said putting her hands on her hips waiting for Troy to do the work.

When he finished, they sat down and had a break.

"It as freezing this morning, now It's boiling as shit" Troy said.

"Troy how come shit is boiling? How come shit is boring? How come shit is funny? Last time I checked the word shit isn't anything, just a crude word to use" she said.

"I've heard you use it" Troy said, smirking.

"Because I've been stuck on a mountain for a few days with you, I haven't been near any civilisation, I'm having withdrawals from my family. Oh, and I almost _died!_ Maybe that's why" she responded. Gabriella just looked off to the side to check out the view and all Troy could see was the glistening sweat that was sparkling down her cleavage.

"I like you like this Montez" Troy said.

"Excuse me? Like me like what?" she asked.

"Confident. And not afraid of me" he said. Gabriella just looked at him shocked.

"I'm not afraid of you Troy. I've never been afraid of _you._ I've always just been afraid of humiliation" she said. "I guess I like you like this too. Not making fun of me…as much" she said smiling a bit. "Come on, time to get moving" she said and walked off. Alright, Troy was starting to fall for her.

For about 15 minutes, Gabriella was walking quite far ahead of Troy. She didn't like him wondering behind her. With Troy, he didn't want to be anywhere near her. What if he just kissed her right there and took of her clothes in a way she would never be able to wear them again. No, he would stay right where he was. Until he heard Gabriella scream loudly, he ran right to her. She was standing crying with her hands over her face. When Troy saw what she saw he had to look away. A badly decapitated rabbit was lying on the side of the track. Troy turned Gabriella away from the animal. He was almost afraid to touch her again, but very slowly, he brought her into a hug. Gabriella buried her head in Troy's chest and he held her tightly. Troy had held sobbing girls before, but Gabriella felt a little bit different when she was in his arms. No girl had given him Goosebumps like Gabriella did. No girl had sped up his heart rate or made him extremely nervous like Gabriella did. She shot fireworks through his body.

"Come on lets keep moving" she said wiping beneath her eyes. Before Troy could say something she had already walked off like before and this time, he decided to walk next to Gabriella.

"You know we actually have done more than we should have so far. We could probably take a day off or something" Gabriella said, looking at the map and in her notebook.

"Well that's good, because look what I spotted" Troy said pointing down a hill.

"I'm going nowhere near cliffs" Gabriella said backing away.

"This isn't a cliff, it's a hill we can both walk down" Troy said reassuring her.

Gabriella had a look and saw there was another small lake thing.

"Well it is boiling" Gabriella said and they both walked down, ready to go for a dip. They both chucked their stuff on the dirtyish bay and turned to look at each other. Okay now came the hard part, taking their clothes off. Troy stared at Gabriella and pulled off his shirt, still looking at her. "Umm…" Gabriella quickly mumbled and turned around, beginning to unbutton her shirt. She managed to get the first 4 buttons undone so her bra was well and truly showing, but she had some trouble with the 5th button. "Shit" she whispered.

"What's the matter?" Troy asked.

"I think I'll give swimming a miss today" Gabriella said, not turning around to face him.

"What? Why?" Troy asked, hiding his disappointment.

"My button seems to be all twisted and tangle in some thread" she said turning around. Troy took a deep breath at the site of her chest. "I can't get it undone" she said.

"Let me see" Troy said stepping towards her. Gabriella stepped back very hesitant, "Montez it is a steaming hot day, you have to go swimming, come on" he said and Gabriella just nodded. _Oh god what am I getting myself into_ Troy thought. He stepped over to her and undid her button easily, "See that wasn't so hard" he said, but weirdly to Gabriella he undid the next button, then he went to slowly undo the next one but stopped quickly, "yep there you go" he said and immediately dived in the water. _Oh thank god this water is freezing._ He watched her slide her shorts down again and saw she was wearing another pair of boy shorts, just blue this time instead of black. God those boy shorts looked sexy on her. While Gabriella was tying her hair up again, she spotted a large rock which she could jump off, "where you going?" Troy asked.

"You see that rock? I'm going to jump off it!" she yelled out. Once she reached it, she saw Troy was right in her diving region. "Troy move or I'm going to break your neck" she said.

"As tiny as you? I don't think you could pull one of my eyelashes out!" he yelled up to her.

"I doubt that!" she yelled back and jumped off the rock, landing right near Troy.

3 HOURS LATER

"So it's freezing this morning, boiling during the day and now it decides to rain!" Troy yelled as him and Gabriella sprinted back to their campsite, which they were very close to. Once they reached the tent, they chucked their stuff in and basically leaped inside landing in a heap. "Whooo…" Troy mumbled. "What?" he asked looking at Gabriella who was staring back at him.

"We need to change our clothes" she said and Troy suddenly knew why she was looking at him weird.

"Uh, yeah no problem. You get dressed first and I'll just look away" he said and Gabriella agreed.

-

-

"Are you looking?" Gabriella asked Troy, very paranoid.

"No Montez I'm not looking" Troy replied monotoned.

"Are your eyes closed?"

"Yes my eyes are closed too" Troy replied again with no emotion.

"Is your head stuck in the pillow?"

"Yes my head is jammed up in the pillow so badly that I can hardly breath"

"Is y-"

"just get dressed!!" he said.

"Sorry" Gabriella whispered.

"It's okay" Troy replied. Troy didn't actually have his eyes closed and he didn't actually have his head buried in his pillow. He was just lying on his side facing away from Gabriella. But accidently, he managed to make out a warped reflection of her in his drink bottle. He saw her bare back and saw her slip on a t shirt over the top. He wondered what it would be like running his hands up and down her skin. _FOR THE LAST TIME STOP IT! _Troy screamed to his mind.

"Okay, your turn" Gabriella said looking away from him.

"Montez I appreciate you looking away but you don't have to bury your head so far into the pillow that you break your nose. I have been naked in front of many girls before" he said and there was silence from Gabriella. She knew this, she would bet her life on it, but she felt a little bit more of her heart crumble away. Gabriella heard thunder and jumped at the sound. She had a phobia of storms, a really bad phobia. She couldn't help it. Whenever there was a storm she would run into her parent's bedroom and sleep in between them. "Don't tell me you're scared of storms" Troy said as he pulled on some trackies, "you can look now!" he said.

"I actually have a phobia of storms. I'm not a stupid drama queen who squeals at a flash of light. I have an actual phobia…"

"Alright ok I get it, you have a phobia. Don't worry it shouldn't be that bad" Troy said, but suddenly there was a huge CRASH!

"AH!" Gabriella squealed. She curled up into a little ball and started to shake.

"Whoa, ok I didn't know the phobia was this bad" he said crawling over to her. Gabriella saw a great big flash of lightning lighting up their whole tent. She whimpered again and Troy saw tears seeping through her tightly closed eyes. "Hey, it's ok. There's no need to be scared, I'm here" he said quickly patting her arm like she was a dog. There was another clap of thunder, which Troy even jumped at. Gabriella clenched her teeth tightly together and started to moan. "Thunder can't hurt you"

"It's loud!" she said, looking up at him through her foggy vision.

"I know it's loud. So is Mr. Marison but he won't hurt you" he said and Gabriella chuckled. Another flash of lightning and Gabriella clenched her whole body even more. Troy wanted to do this so badly, but he didn't want to because he so badly wanted to, because he was afraid of what he might do to her. But right now, she needed some comfort. He lay down next to her and wrapped his two strong, protective arms around her cold, shaking body. He helped her into the sleeping bag and he got in with her. Immediately, she ducked under the covers, hiding her head, stilling gripping tightly onto Troy's shirt. He sniggered and decided to go under with her. "The storm can't get you when you are in a tent and under a sleeping bag…lying next to me"

It took Troy a great amount of will power not to take her face in his hands and kiss her until neither of them could breathe, and he succeeded. He was with her for a very large amount of days and he would have to practice self control.


	6. It's Bloody Heaven

"Argh…time to get up" Troy mumbled. He got up into a sitting position and grabbed his water bottle and took a few large gulps. He stretched out widely and turned to look at Gabriella who was already staring at him fiercely. "Are you alright?" Troy asked. Suddenly, Gabriella attacked his mouth sending them both to the floor; Troy was shocked out of his skin, but was more then happy to oblige and tried to keep up the pace. He ripped his shirt off when he realised Gabriella was struggling to do it herself. She plunged her hands through his hair as Troy rolled them over so he was now in control of the activity. He shakily undid the first two buttons on her pyjama shirt but couldn't do the rest so just used all his might to rip it open, sending buttons all over the tent. He kissed his way down to her belly button as one hand began to massage her breast…

"Troy…Troy…Troy! TROY!!" Gabriella yelled and suddenly Troy burst out of sleep, noticing the sweat on his forehead and almost all over his body. "Are you okay?" Gabriella asked.

"H-huh? What?" Troy replied.

"Well, you're kind of sweaty. Did you break out in one of those sweats? I get that sometimes too" Gabriella said. _I think the best idea would be not talking Gabriella_ Troy thought. After that dream, the last thing he wanted to picture was Gabriella all sweaty in bed.

"Uh yeah. I get them too" Troy said feeling very nervous talking to the girl he just had a wild dream about. "Sorry about that" he said when he realised that she had still been in her arms.

"It's okay"

"Do you know what the time is?" Troy asked, trying to change the topic.

"It's a quarter past 4 in the morning. I checked my watch when you woke me up" she said.

"I'm really sorry" Troy said again.

"No it's okay, really. I just hope you're feeling all right. That's all. I'm going to change into another top" Gabriella said.

"I'll go outside. I think a little fresh air will do me some good" Troy said and Gabriella nodded in agreement. Troy scurried outside and stood at the edge of the path in the freezing cold. What was happening to him?

"Are you okay out there?" he heard Gabriella say from inside the tent.

"Yeah I'm fine" he replied. She was just so kind to him, she seemed to care about him.

"Good"

"I think I really like Gabriella Montez" Troy whispered.

"Did you say something?" Gabriella said, sticking her head out of the tent.

"N-no. No I didn't say anything" Troy answered.

"Gosh it's freezing out here. It's good that you're cooling down Troy but neither of us want you to get sick" Gabriella said coming to stand next to him. Troy looked down at her from the corner of his eye and noticed she was in a white singlet top and short shorts. _Brilliant._ He thought, he was going to share a sleeping bag with that amazing creature standing next to him. "Come on" she said as she walked back to the tent. Troy took a deep breath and calmed himself down and followed her.

When they both finally got comfortable, they found themselves lying on their sides, facing each other.

"Troy?" Gabriella asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did you have a bad dream?" she said and Troy almost laughed at her question.

"I definitely didn't have a bad dream" Troy said, "like you said, I just broke out in a sweat"

"Ok then" Gabriella replied. Troy smiled and heard Gabriella shiver quickly.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"I-" just as Gabriella was about to talk, he felt those two arms wrap around her body again.

"Don't worry, I won't make you change pyjamas again" Troy said and they both chuckled. Troy could feel Gabriella's nose on his chest and once again his heart sped up and all those familiar feelings returned. And now, he was almost beginning to get used to it.

10:00AM

"Oh, wow" Gabriella said as she woke up looking at her watch. "10 AM. Good thing we've done more than we need to so far…" she said. She turned back around and saw Troy sleeping peacefully. She could feel the breaths coming out of his nose hitting her neck. She smiled and the sudden temptation to kiss him right there was almost overpowering. Good thing she needed to sneeze otherwise she would've done it.

"ACHOO!"

"Whoa! Shit! What's going on??" Troy asked as the sneeze abruptly woke him up.

"Sorry, I sneezed" Gabriella said and Troy plopped his head back down on the pillow.

"It's ok. We should probably get up now anyway" Troy said smiling, "Oh good, you're still in the same pyjamas" Troy said looking her up and down making Gabriella laugh loudly. God she had a cute laugh.

"Yeah, you're safe" she said. "I wish we could just sleep all day today, I can't be bothered to do anything" Gabriella said as they both go ready to walk around the whole bloody mountain.

"I agree"

30 MINUTES LATER

"Hey look, isn't that…" _oh dear god_ Gabriella thought.

"It's Chad!" Troy said running over to him. "Yo Chad!"

"Troy man!!" Chad yelled out. Troy had run ahead of Gabriella and she sped up the pace herself, she didn't want to get lost again! She hung back a bit and saw Troy and Chad give a small hug and also saw Taylor McKessi standing there timidly. "So how's camping with geeky Montez?" Chad replied and Troy looked back at Gabriella who could hear every word.

_It's bloody heaven_ he thought in his mind, but he couldn't say that, "it's bloody hell" Troy answered and a part, a larger part than usual, of Gabriella's heart shattered. Troy turned around and saw the look on her face and had realised what he had done. Chad laughed at loud and stuck his rude finger up at Gabriella.

"Almost as bad as camping out with McKessi, god she's a pain in the ass" Chad said and Gabriella saw a tear roll down Taylor's face and gave her a sympathetic look. Taylor just shrugged her shoulders and Gabriella rolled her eyes and both of the boys. "Bet you can't wait to get away from her can you" Chad said chuckling.

"You're right. She got lost, she almost died she's just a pain it's like a fucking have to babysit her" Troy said, with little bits of his heart breaking off at every word he said. He heard a ruffling behind him and saw her run off into the bush. _No not again_ Troy thought. "Look dude, I would love to let her go and stay and talk to you but we've kind of lost each other before and it's a pain looking for her, so I gotta go" Troy said slapping hands with him and running off to find Gabriella. "Where are you?!" he yelled out into the wilderness. He turned a corner and found Gabriella sitting on the ground crying, with a harsh red scratch up half her calf. "Shit…" Troy whispered. He went and kneeled next to her and put his hand out to see the cut.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled at him.

"You're hurt" Troy said.

"I know I'm hurt! I'm always hurt Troy! All the time! Not just from being pushed into lockers or being punched in the stomach by Stephanie or having books thrown at my head. It's in here Troy!" Gabriella yelled putting her hand to her heart. "It hurts more inside than it does on the outside. Now don't touch me! Don't talk to me! I WOULD GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE IF I COULD! I HATE YOU!" she yelled.

"Gabriella would you sit down?! You can't even walk properly with that cut" Troy demanded.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she said walking off. But Troy was right, her leg was in a lot of pain…_if I can just get back to camp and get the first aid kit…_ she thought. But she couldn't. She sat back down again in defeat. "I thought I saw something in you Troy. Something good. But…I was wrong" she whispered and Troy felt sick to the stomach.

"There is good in me Gabriella" Troy replied.

"It certainly doesn't look like it! Just when we start to get along, FUCKING CHAD FUCKING DANFORTH HAS TO COME ALONG!! And you're back to the same you all over again" Gabriella said.

"I know. Look, I know. I know the stupid charade I keep up in front of my friends. And you were right, I am afraid. I'm afraid of what will happen if I stop being a dickhead and stand up to all my friends. I don't want to be ditched; I don't want to be hated. I so badly don't want to be alone that I do the wrong thing. All the time"

"I don't trust you Troy" Gabriella said to him.

"I know you don't now. But try and believe me when I say this. A few moments ago when I saw you run off away from me, I started to feel sick. I started to shake and I wanted to beat the living shit out of Chad for insulting you like that and punch myself in the face for going along with it. As soon as you ran away I knew I had to stop doing what I was doing, otherwise I would regret it. For the rest of my entire life. As soon as you ran away, I knew"

"You knew what?"

"I knew that I like you so much. More than any other girl I have liked in my life" Troy said, "if I knew where Chad was and if you weren't hurt, I would run after him right now and kill him"

"I don't know Troy…" Gabriella whispered.

"At least let me take you back to camp" Troy said and Gabriella nodded.

-

-

Gabriella almost fell asleep in the tent at Troy's touch as he was bandaging up her leg.

"Is that feeling better?" Troy asked and Gabriella nodded. Troy noticed that Gabriella was still crying a little bit and he crawled over to her, but she got up and walked out of the tent. "Gabriella you have every right to be angry"

"Oh I know that" Gabriella snapped turning back to look at Troy. Her leg was still stinging a bit but she could walk just fine now, thank god.

"I thought we'd talked about this for now" Troy said.

"Talked about it? For now? Troy _we_ didn't talk about it. You just went on about how you were going to stop bullying me. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciated it and I'm glad, but not a small speech that only goes for about a minute can't just make up for what you've done to me in the past" Gabriella said angrily. "Chad is a dickhead"

"Chad isn't a dickhead" Troy said, defending his best friend and Gabriella's head shot up.

"Am I retarded? Am I deaf blind and stupid? What did I just see back there?? Did you not see how he was treating his partner? Did you not see how we was treating me?!" Gabriella yelled.

"Everyone has a portion of _dickhead_ in them Gabriella but there is good in him!" Troy said.

"No there isn't! And there is _no_ portion of dickhead in me!! At the very beginning of this camp I hated you and I still helped you!" Gabriella shouted, kicking a tin can at him.

"_Hated_ me?" Troy asked. And Gabriella quickly realised what she had just said.

"I-I still do!" she yelled.

"Gabriella I'm sorry!" Troy yelled back, moving to stand in front of her.

"No you're not! You don't respect me, you don't care one bit for me!"

"If I didn't care one bit for you, I would've let you fall off that cliff. I wouldn't have almost drowned myself to save you; I wouldn't have given you CPR to get you breathing again, I wouldn't have held your hand or hugged you when you were scared. I wouldn't have shared my sleeping bag with you if you were cold, I wouldn't have given you some of my pillow if you bashed your head on a rock, I wouldn't have tended to your cut if you had fallen over. If I didn't respect you then every time I felt as if I was about to explode from attraction…god now's what I would've done to you. But I didn't!" Troy said, almost out of breath.

"Explode from attraction?" Gabriella whispered.

"YES! Seeing you take off your clothes, holding you in the tent, our skin brushing against each other, the clothes you wear, the sweat sparkling on your skin, your hair, walking in on you half naked…everything!" Troy yelled out. When he looked down at Gabriella, he saw forgiveness in her eyes, he saw kindness and passion and…attraction? They stared at each other for a good, long 10 seconds.

Suddenly, Troy wrapped both his arms around her entire body tightly and kissed her firmly, but softly on the lips. Gabriella plunged her hand in his hair and roamed her other arm around his back. He pushed her up against a tree and Gabriella got bark all through her hair, but she didn't care. Troy's tongue found its way into Gabriella's mouth as they walked across the campsite, knocking over pots and pans and almost tripping over rocks. Troy's hands were all throughout Gabriella's hair, getting it out of its elastic. Troy moved them both into the tent, barely getting inside, and somehow not breaking the kiss once. Troy laid Gabriella down and noticed that she weaved her arms around his neck and stopped kissing him, she was just hugging him. Troy smiled and wrapped his arms around her entire body and rolled over so they were facing each other. Troy saw a tear slip out the side of Gabriella eye and began to panic.

"What's the matter? Why didn't you stop me?" Troy said, worried that she didn't want any of what had just happened.

"No, no that's not it. Just…thank you" she said sniffling.

"For what?" he said smiling and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I don't know, just thank you" she replied pulling a piece of bark out of her hair.

"You're welcome" Troy replied as he pulled her closer to him. Almost every little bit that had crumbled off Troy's heart had began to mend again, Gabriella was in his arms.

1AM

Gabriella had woken up about an hour ago, smiling non stop, still lying in Troy's embrace. She breathed in deeply and decided to go and get some fresh air. She quietly and smoothly crawled out of Troy's arms and went outside. She giggled to herself and stretched her arms out wide.

"Good, Troy must've kicked her out of the tent" someone whispered. Gabriella's head whipped around, thinking she heard someone.

"Hello?" she said quietly, "is anyone out there?" she whispered, but just shrugged it off. She decided to go back in the tent with Troy. Even if there was someone out there, she would be safe. She turned around, swinging her arms but suddenly felt a cold hand cover her mouth. She tried to scream but she was dragged off into the bush, not enough to hurt her, but hey, she was scared!

6AM

Troy woke up stretching his arms expecting to see Gabriella lying with him. He smelt Gabriella's scent and opened his eyes, but she wasn't there. "Gabriella?" he said looking around the tent. He quickly got up and went outside but couldn't find her outside. "Gabriella!" he yelled out, but there was no response. Panic rose inside of him. "GABRIELLA" he yelled out again, but all he could hear were a few chirping birds. He suddenly hear his phone beep from in his bag. He ran over to it, thinking it might be Gabriella. He looked and just saw that it was a reminder. He read it and he could've crushed his phone in anger.

_Geeki Gabi prank time!_

-

-

**Okay guys I hope you liked this chapter, it didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to but I tried! Oh and I've put a link on my profile to my Photobucket profile where I have posters I have made for each of my stories! I hope you enjoy them, and tell me what you think!**

**Much love.**

**xxx**


	7. Super Girl

_Flashback__  
_

"_Alright let's go through it one more time" Troy said, "you get Gabriella in the middle of the night and just trek somewhere for half an hour. As long as she is nowhere near anyone else's camp site alright? We leave her with a map and broken compass and leave her with the note. You got the note Chad? What you write?" Troy asked snickering._

"_I got it actually" Zeke said, "I wrote, 'navigate your way out of this bitch'" Zeke said, reading of the paper, folding it back up and putting it back in his pocket. All the boys laughed out loud._

"_Perfect" Troy said with a wide grin on his face._

"_Okay, so 1am on the 4__th__ day okay?" Chad said to Troy, Zeke and Jason who were planning their ever so clever prank on Gabriella._

"_Alright, so that'll be the 24__th__ yeah? I'll find a way to get her out of the tent at about 12:45 ok?" Troy said to them and they all nodded. "And I don't care where you guys take her…don't bother waking me" he said laughing._

"_Zeke and I will collect her" Chad said. "Ha there she is" Chad said nodding towards Gabriella who was putting books in her locker. Everyone looked over at her and snorted at her. Troy noticed how small and fragile she looked. She was like a porcelain doll. And a porcelain doll couldn't handle the prank that they were going to pull. _Whatever_ Troy thought. He ignored that reflection in his mind and decided to continue on with the plan. _

"_This'll be great" Troy said reassuringly to himself_

_End flashback._

"What the hell is this? What's going on!?" Gabriella yelled as she got put in a tent in the middle of nowhere, "who are you? Are you from East High?" Gabriella asked again, but the people who brought her to this already set up tent had already gone. She saw that they had chucked a few items in with her. A torch, a map, a compass, a packet of bread and a piece of paper. She grabbed the torch and read the note.

_Navigate your way out of this bitch_

Gabriella burst into tears immediately. Troy was behind this. She didn't mean anything to him, he didn't care for her one bit, she was just a ploy. Every little thing has just been to lure her in so they could all go ahead with this game. Gabriella grabbed the torch and shone it around her tent, it wasn't like the tent she a Troy was staying in, and it was much smaller. She walked outside in her bare feet and saw that she was in a smaller area. Troy and her had a big area to set up camp in. This was tiny, and Gabriella was petrified. She cried harder and plopped down on the hard tent floor. _Don't they realise what they could do to me? This could lead to a court case! _Gabriella thought. What was she supposed to do now? Die in the wilderness?

Meanwhile, Troy was rushing as fast as possible down every path he could find until he could spot Chad's tent. "Chad!" he called out, "GABRIELLA?!" he called out even louder. He bolted up and down hills and shone the torch everywhere possible. He scanned every twig and every spec of dirt but could not find _anyone._ "FUCK!" he yelled out. Troy knew that Gabriella would be thinking he had been planning the prank all along. God knows how bad she would be feeling at the moment.

Gabriella was beginning to feel sick from fright and heartbreak. She had no idea what time it was or where she was or what was happening! The only thing she knew, was that she wanted to get the hell away from where she was. She snatched up the torch, shoved the compass in her pocket, grabbed the bread and folded up the map and held it in her mouth, which was starting to dry up. She hadn't had water in a long time. She tip toed outside and knew her feet were going to get scratched up from the lack of shoes. The tears kept sliding down her face, but she wasn't making any noise. She slowly kept stepping forward and forward. She looked at the map briefly but there was no way she could figure out where she was with the broken compass.

4 hours had gone by and Troy couldn't find anyone. Not a soul! Earlier he had been sick from worry and anger, what if she got bitten by a snake or attacked. What if she fell off a cliff again? Troy tried not to think of those thinks as it would make him feel worse than he already did. Finally, in the distance, he saw a small flickering bit of light. His eyes widened and he sped off in that direction. "Chad!" he called out. He practically opened the tent and shone the torch in, "Chad?"

"What the hell? Get out of here!" he heard a female voice say, "Chad's tent is like fucking 3 seconds away down the path. Piss off" the girl said and Troy already bolted away.

"CHAD!" he yelled out. Once he reached the next campsite he basically yanked Chad out of the tent and shone the torch right in his face, "where is she?" Troy growled deeply in his throat like he was an animal.

"Whaaaat?" Chad mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Gabriella. WHERE IS SHE!" Troy demanded an answer again.

"Oh" Chad said starting to laugh, "I have no idea where we took her" he said laughing again, thinking Troy was here to laugh about it.

"God dammit Chad!" Troy said, grabbing his shirt by his neck and tightening his grip every second.

"What the hell?" Chad said, trying to get out of Troy's grip.

"Do you realise what you could've _done?!"_ Troy bellowed.

"Why do you care?!" Chad shouted.

"BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT _HER!" _

"You've got to be kidding me right?" Chad said. Immediately, Troy punched him in the face sending him to the ground.

"I don't want you doing anything _but _look for her!" Troy yelled as he made his way back to his camp.

The sun began to rise and Gabriella's lips were very, very chapped and she was very, very thirsty. She dared not have any bread as that would make her even_ more_ thirsty. The souls of her feet were bleeding a little bit, and there were so many scratches to her arms that she could have looked like a walking corpse. "I can't believe I haven't passed anyone! I wish they didn't send the other 3 quarters on the other side of this fucking mountain" _I should never have came!_ Gabriella said in her mind. She began to cry again and felt a tear drop land on her grazed knee from where she fell over. Gabriella dropped the bread and picked it up again, "this fucking BREAD!" she yelled and chucked way into the bush, in a place she would never have been able to get it again. She attempted to run but her feet were so sore that she was having trouble simply walking. She couldn't believe how far out she had been taken. They must've taken her in the wrong direction because none of the areas she was walking through looked the least bit familiar.

Another hour had gone by and Troy let a few tears trickle down his cheeks as he sped towards a tent he had found. "Gabriella?" he said, plunging his head inside. She wasn't in there, but he saw a white piece of paper all scrunched up.

_Navigate your way out of this bitch_

Troy recognised the note to be Zeke's and Troy growled deeply in his throat. He slammed it back down on the ground and started running again calling out her name.

"I just have to keep going downhill until I reach the bottom, then I can make my way to the national trust's cabin and go home" Gabriella said to herself. By now, she was walking slower than a legless man. She didn't care about what she stepped on anymore, she didn't think her feet could be in more pain. Ahead of her, she saw water, and another cliff which lead down to it. She smiled briefly and made her way to the very edge. She looked down, smiling again. The water looked extremely welcoming. Her eyes began to shut and she simply let herself drop off the edge.

Troy screamed out in frustration, not knowing what to do anymore. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. He looked ahead of him and saw a figure slowly falling off a rock. It was Gabriella, he could tell. She was wearing a bright red singlet top. It would take him a while to get there, but he was going to get there, not matter how long it took. He cursed out loud and dried of the tears slipping down his face by running so fast.

As soon as Gabriella hit the cold water, she managed to wake up and resurface. She didn't care if the water was contaminated with poison, she drank as much as she possibly could and before she drowned from it, she clawed her way to a protruding rock from the middle of the lake, nowhere near a bank. She scrambled up and immediately fainted, which lead her into a deep sleep.

Troy found the rock she had jumped from and ran to the edge looking down to see if he could spot her anywhere. His heart stopped when he saw her lifeless body lying down on a rock. He took off his shoes, chucked them to the side and jumped as far out as he could. He hit the water in pain but ignored it, he swam over to the rock and climbed up. "Gabriella" he gurgled. He wiped his face and ran his hands through his hair and put his hands on her shoulders shaking her. "Gabriella!" he said again. He saw she was breathing so she didn't need CPR. He pressed his forehead against hers and whispered her name again. Suddenly, Gabriella's eyes snapped open and she scrambled away from Troy. She stood up keeping her balance with one hand and holding the other up in front of Troy.

"Don't come near me!" she yelled.

"B-"

"But nothing! You could've killed me! I could handle the bullying for the rest of the year Troy but not a prank like this" she said, choking on her constant sobs and barely getting the words out.

"I wasn't behind it Gabriella!" Troy said walking towards her.

"Yes you w-!" Gabriella stopped her sentence as she squealed and fell back into the water. Troy ran over and quickly saw her emerge, she was fine. "Yes you were!" she said spitting some water out of her mouth, "you're just saying that so I won't tell on you!!" she yelled. She watched Troy step into the water but didn't want him to come in, "stay there! Stay on the rock!" she yelled as she swam away. She was a pretty fast swimmer when she wanted to be. She finally reached the part of water we she could just stand up, but she heard Troy dive in after her. She saw a bank she could get to in time, but she was wrong. Troy immediately glided next to her like an eel and emerged right in her face.

"I didn't want to do it!" he yelled.

"Yes you did. I was stupid to think that you actually liked me" Gabriella snapped.

"I _do_ like you Gabriella! I DO! I spent the last 5 hours looking for you, looking at these scratches on my arms! He said holding his arms out. I punched Chad in the face for taking you away!"

"It _was_ Chad! It _was_ you! You're best friends!"

"NO!" Troy yelled again, "I'll be honest. I _did_ plan it before we came Gabriella, _I did_ okay? But as soon as we started camping out I completely forgot about it. But as soon as you went missing I remembered. That's the honest truth."

"Too much shit has happened Troy. I can't trust you" she said splashing a lot of water in his face. Troy just ignored it and wiped his face again.

"If you don't believe me Gabriella, why do you think I am here in the water with you now? Why would I have jumped off that cliff? If I was behind it still do you think I would've really bothered?" Troy said. He watched her glare at him, but noticed her expression started to soften. Troy splashed some water in her face too, just not as much as she did to him.

"Hey!" she said angrily and splashed him some more. Troy just splashed her back.

"You did it to me!" he yelled back.

"You deserved it!" Gabriella yelled once again. Soon enough, they were both in a heated splashing contest and suddenly, Gabriella felt two hands firmly grab her shoulders and a pair of lips crashing down on hers. She immediately melted into the kiss and felt her whole body go limp, Troy knew she needed rest.

7:30pm

Gabriella had gotten so tired that Troy was carrying her back to the tent. When they finally arrived, Troy placed Gabriella in the sleeping bag and mentally kicked himself for forgetting about the stupid prank. _She was safe in my arms…and I just let her go!_ Troy got in the sleeping bag with her and wrapped his strong arms around her, intending on keeping her safe from anything that could harm her.

"Nothing can get to you now" Troy whispered in her ear. Unexpectedly, he began to hear Gabriella sob quietly. "What's the matter Gabriella? You're safe now…" Troy said comfortingly.

"Troy, you had no idea how I felt out there all alone" Gabriella said in between tears.

"I can't imagine. Gabriella you made your way to water, you followed the map even though it was difficult, you got found. You're a super hero. I'm so, so sorry. "

"It's okay. It's just…it brings back really bad memories. I had a little sister…and thinking of what happened to her makes me sick in the stomach. I thought I was in the same situation as her…" Gabriella started to cry harder and harder now. Troy figured she seemed more distressed about her little sister, and now what had just happened to her.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Troy asked soothingly while brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Troy it will make you cry"


End file.
